Title: Bane
Series: Strain, #2
Author: Amelia C. Gormley
Genre: Dystopia/ Military
Length: Novel (279 pages)
Publisher: Riptide Publishing (September 21st 2015)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts
Blurb: The weapon that nearly destroyed humanity may be their only salvation.
Rhys Cooper’s unique immunity to all three strains of the virus that nearly annihilated humanity has brought him the unwanted attention of Clean Zone scientists. They’ve summoned him for testing—ostensibly in the hopes of finding a vaccine—but Rhys’s partner, Darius Murrell, has good reason not to trust any government. He and his comrades in Delta Company were unwitting test subjects for Project Juggernaut, the military experiment that gave them superhuman abilities and unleashed the pandemic. Doubting the government’s intentions, Delta Company refuses to let Rhys go alone.
Fear of infection has kept Zach Houtman and his lover Nico Fernández apart for a decade. They meet rarely, just long enough to coordinate their spying on the head of the government’s virus research division. Secretary Littlewood is a vicious predator, and they suspect he’s trying to acquire the strain of the virus that would make him superhuman. To stop him, they need the perfect bait: Rhys.
For Rhys, helping them might cost him his relationship with Darius—or his life. For Zach and Nico, even if their plan succeeds, they still face the ultimate question: can infected and uninfected people ever live together safely?
ISBN: 9781626492844
Product Link: http://www.riptidepublishing.com//titles/bane
Reviewer: Aerin
Review: I admit I’ve still yet to pick up Strain and read it, and while I was afraid it will prevent me from enjoying Bane, since Strain is the setting for Bane and is totally connected with it, I felt like I got to know enough about Rhys and Darius for me to avoid feeling like I’m missing something important. This book focuses heavily on the relationship between Darius and Rhys, and let me tell you those two are so incredibly hot together.
I’m happy I didn’t get to read Strain, because it saved me from reading about Rhys being passed around for all the soldiers to fuck, even though there was a reason for that. I enjoyed Darius’s possessiveness when it came to Rhys, and the sex those two had was smoking hot!
Bane also catches up with Zack and Nico, the main characters in JUGGERNAUT, but their relationship is not as intense as that between Rhys and Darius. I found Zack tiring and frustrating, he annoyed me with his Fate multiple times…yeah I know, what a horrible thing for me to say. Not that I have something against his fate in God or anyone else’s, but does it have to be mentioned constantly throughout the book? Yes, I got it. God is telling you to stay without Nico and be miserable, now STFU!
I liked the whole plan for finding a cure, the antidote for the mutated alpha strain, even though in the end it didn’t work like it was supposed to. I also liked that this story was told from multiple POVs. It allowed us to better understand why the characters chose to do what they did, and the feelings they had about the situation they were in.
The ending was pretty unique and the idea was very interesting, but I’m not sure I understand exactly how the air in Russia is different from the air in the US, to the extent where it created such a tragedy.
Great series if you’re looking for a great sci-fi/dystopian theme.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *